September 2008

Lot’s of good stuff on TCM in October for you guys to watch. For one, it’s Carole Lombard month (to celebrate her 100th birthday. Look for a little celebration here in Oct. 6). They’ll also be celebrating RKO’s 80th anniversary.

Paul Newman passed away yesterday after a battle with lung cancer. He was 83. It’s truly a sad day for film fans everywhere.

Amazingly, after over 50 years in film, Newman never lost that classic movie star glow. His presense on the screen was undeniable, whether he was 21 years old, playing a boxer in Somebody Up There Likes Me, or 77 years old, playing the againg mentor/enemy to Tom Hanks’ gangster in Road to Perdition. He personified the legacy of classic Hollywood.

In the 1950s, he was part of a new breed of actors, men who dared to their naturalistic style to Hollywood, who weren’t afraid of turning away from refined, pretty boy rolesin favor of rough, complicated characters. And Newman was one of the bravest of all, not shying away from the really harsh stuff, like the latent homosexuality of his role in 1958’s Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. His characters were raw, real, and showed emotion that the generation that came before him hadn’t.

And he was a shining example off-screen as well. While some of his contemporaries were immersed in scandal, or allowed their personal demons to destroy their lives and careers, Newman led a life of generosity. He was married to his wife, Joanne Woodward for 50 years, living a quiet life out of the spotlight. He was also a humanitarian, always mindful of those who weren’t fortunate to have all the things he did. The proceeds from the food business he began all went to charity, and he was the founder of several groups for terminally ill children.

And he will, of course, always be remembered for his films. He will forever be the embodiment of the rebellious anti-hero of the 1960s. His films and images will live on forever. I know I’ll never be able to think of “some place like Bolivia” without thinking of the great Paul Newman.

When something like this happens, you want kind of want to say something like, “Let’s not remember him in death. Let’s remember him in his youth. When he was young, untouched, and rebellious. Let Cat On a Hot Tin Roof be the way we remember him”. But that’s just not fair with Paul Newman. Because he didn’t just get old and decide to quit. He kept going. And somehow, he managed to stay just as incredible, cool, awesome, rebellious, charming, funny, and entertaining as he was in those early film. He was just as cool at 80 as he was at 25. And that deserves to be remembered. He will always be that carelessly sexy, beautiful blue eyed man who made who made smoking a cigarette look like a kiss, who made a slouch seem like a battle stance, and who made bad boys have heart. But he’ll also always be the man who wasn’t afraid to age, who wasn’t afraid to take on different kinds of roles and change his image as the years went on. He’ll always just be Paul Newman. One of the coolest guys ever.

This has already been a really tough year on Hollywood, with the loss of legends like Richard Widmark and Anita Page, and the tragic and unexpected death of Heath Ledger. You would think that maybe with so much death this year it would start to get easier, but it doesn’t. And especially not when it’s Paul Newman. When it’s someone like this, someone who is a LIVING legend, who has been alive and active in film throughout your whole life, but was also around before then, during the golden age… even with the knowledge that they’re getting older and they will die soon, it’s almost impossible to think about what the film world will be like without them. Especially someone as important as Paul Newman. His absence will be felt for a very long time.

A few sites (including Awardsdaily.com, usually pretty reliable) have reported overnight that Paul Newman has died. I can’t find any news sources confirming the story yet. I’ll update this post as information becomes available.

Big, gigantic age difference between an actor and his leading lady in classic films has never been something that eyelashes were batted at. Everyone looks at pairings like Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits or William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man movie and knows that there’s an age gap. Hell, Humphrey Bogart starred with Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not when she was 19 and he was pushing 50, and then they fell in love and got married. It happens in modern film, too, but you do get a lot more people pointing out the May/December nature of romances in films now than you do with films from back in the day. Of course the actresses were frequently younger than their leading men. In classic Hollywood, actors were allowed to age and still play the leading man roles they were taking when they were in their 20s. But in most cases, once an actress passed 35 she was considered too old. So Clark Gable was allowed to play leading man for about 30 years. But instead of having Joan Crawford at his side for all those decades, it was a revolving door of young actresses.

But again, nobody really takes too much notice of this. Because, though young compared to their love interest, these actresses are still adults. They’re still women.

Well…… in most cases.

And in some cases….. you have two of the more famous actresses of their day who were pretty much still kids when they started playing romantic interests to older men.

Loretta Young hit Hollywood in 1917 when she was just four years old. She spent the next five years appearing in “extra” roles. She returned to the screen in 1927, a more mature 14. The next year she got her first starring role in Laugh, Clown, Laugh, playing the love interest to 45 year old Lon Chaney. She was 15.

Of course, it being a Lon Chaney film, the sad but heroic clown does not win the woman he loves. He instead selflessly sacrifices himself so she can be with the younger man she really loves. That younger man was Nils Asther. And he was 31.

Laugh, Clown, Laugh helped to catapult Young into stardom, and the teenager became an instant leading lady. She took on several leading roles the next year. The studio was smart though, and paired the now 16 year old young with a 19 year old Dougls Fairbanks, Jr. in more than one film. However, in 1930 she was back in a May/December situation. In The Truth About Youth, 17 year old Young was paired with Conrad Tearle, who was 35 years her senior. She was also paired with Grant Withers in The Second Floor Mystery. He was 11 years older than Young. And in this case, life imitated art. Young and Withers eloped after filming ended. Of course, the marriage didn’t last and Young, a strict catholic, had it annulled.

Young was one of the lucky ones. Her film career as a leading lady remained strong through the 1950s.

About ten years after Loretta Young got her big break in Hollywood, another very young actress broke onto the scene. Linda Darnell, however, didn’t go through extra work and bit roles before she was discovered. In 1939, Darnell was cast in her first film, Hotel for Women, in a starring role with second billing. In the same year, she starred as Tyrone Powers’ wife in Daytime Wife. Power was 25. Darnell was 16. She starred with Power again the next year in The Mark of Zorro and Brigham Young, and again in 1941 in Blood and Sand. In 1940, she made the film Stardust, which was partially based on her experience in Hollywood. For the film, 17 year old Darnell was paired with 28 year old John Payne. In that same year, she was also paired with 35 year old Henry Fonda in Chad Hanna.

Like Young, life imitated art for Darnell in her taste in men. She had a longtime affair with Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who directed her in A Letter to Three Wives. He was 17 years her senior.

Unfortunately for Darnell, she didn’t have Young’s luck in her career. Due to her aging, and being dicked around by the studio (and dumped by Mankiewicz), her career began to fade in the 1950s. She died in a house fire in 1965 at just 41 years old.

Either nobody noticed that these stars were still kids when they were playing leading ladies, or nobody cared. Today, something like that really wouldn’t go over well. Imagine if AnnaSophie Robb was cast in a romance film opposite Sean Penn, and no issue was made of the difference in age. People would go totally apeshit. Eyebrows raised in 2005 when Edward Norton romanced Evan Rachel Wood in Down in the Valley. Wood was a completely legal 18, but there was nearly a 20 year age difference. Hmm…. and people say we were more prudish back then…

Wife Versus Secretary actually ends up being quite a suspenseful movie as we follow devoted husband and successful businessman Van through one of the biggest business deals of his life assisted by his secretary named Whitey. It just so happens that Whitey is not only a invaluable part of the business team but a very attractive woman and while Van is able to keep the relationship strictly professional people start to talk and those around Van, including his wife, become more and more suspicious that there might be a little more to their relationship then just business. The suspense comes in the form of a question. Will Van cross that line?

This film is a very satisfactory drama with well defined and well portrayed characters. Clark Gable’s character is a charming blend of business savy and child-like exuberance. You can’t help but root for his character who is on top of the world and has so much to lose if things were to go too far with his secretary.

Jean Harlow is able to break out of her regular typecasting and play a very successful career oriented woman with a good head on her shoulders. Yet she still ends up subtly playing the role of a temptress.

Myrna Loy plays Van’s wife who lets her mother in law’s warnings about the dangers of an attractive secretary get to her. She tragically ignores her instincts and begins to question the man she should trust and love.

Keep your eyes peeled for Jimmy Stewart in one of his early roles as a young man trying to settle down with career woman Whitey.

Wife Versus Secretary has its flaws. For one thing, aspects of it are some what predictable. However, the third act doesn’t disappoint. A key scene and perhaps one of my favorites for its symbolism takes place in a car with Van’s wife and mother discussing his secretary. Just as Van’s mother places doubt in his wife’s mind concerning the possibilities of his relationship with his secretary they drive through a dark tunnel foreshadowing the possible dark times ahead that could result from doubting her faithful husband. Wife Versus Secretary is definitely a film worth watching. This is a film that thematically comes across as modern despite being released over 70 years ago.

After months of rumors, speculation, and just plain hoping, we finally know for certain that the Fox Borzage/Murnau DVD will be released in December. We also know exactly what films will be on the set and how much it costs. So let’s take a look see….

DVD Times has the DVD art…

There are 12 (!) movies. 10 Borzage (!!!!!) and 2 Murnau. And one feature length documentary about the directors.

LazyBones (Borzage, 1925)
Feature film, still gallery, and a new score.

Street Angel (Borzage, 1928)
Feature film and still gallery.

Seventh Heaven (Borzage, 1927)
Feature film, audio commentary, still gallery, a reproduction of the existing footage of Borzage’s The River, including a still gallery.

Sunrise (Murnau, 1927)
Movietone version of the feature film, European version of the feature film, original score, new score, audio commentary, Outtakes with title card or audio commentary, Original scenario with notations by Murnau, theatrical trailer, still gallery, screenplay, restoration notes

Lucky Star (Borzage, 1929)
Feature film, new score, still gallery

They Had to See Paris (Borzage, 1929)
Feature film, still gallery

City Girl (Murnau, 1930)
Feature film, new score, still gallery, a documentary on Murnau’s lost film 4 Devils, including the screen play, treatment, and still gallery

Lilliom (Borzage, 1930)
Feature film and still gallery

After Tomorrow (Borzage, 1932)
Feature film and still gallery

Young America (Borzage, 1932)
Feature film and still gallery

Song o’ My Heart (Borzage, 1930)
Full sound version of the film, Music and effects version of the film, still gallery

Bad Girl (Borzage, 1931)
Feature Film

Murnau, Borzage, and FoxFeature length documentary

It is pretty pricey folks. People were originally estimating between $90 and $120. But it looks like we got a few more films than we were expecting, and it’s loaded with features. So the market price is about $240. Right now you can pre-order it at amazon $179.99. So it looks like this is going to be my Christmas and birthday present. But god, it’s so worth it.

I’ll keep my eyes open and let you guys know if there’s any place that has it cheaper.